Inflammation is the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. It is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli as well as initiate the healing process for the tissue. In the absence of inflammation, wounds and infections would heal at best more slowly and progressive destruction of the tissue would compromise the survival of the organism. However, inflammation which runs unchecked can also lead to a host of diseases.
Inflammation can be classified as either acute or chronic. Acute inflammation is the initial response of the body to harmful stimuli and is achieved by the increased movement of plasma and leukocytes from the blood into the injured tissues. A cascade of biochemical events propagates and matures the inflammatory response, involving the local vascular system, the immune system, and various cells within the injured tissue. Prolonged inflammation, known as chronic inflammation, leads to a progressive shift in the type of cells which are present at the site of inflammation and is characterized by simultaneous destruction and healing of the tissue from the inflammatory process.
Despite recent advances in the management of patients with acute inflammatory conditions (e.g. sepsis, trauma-hemorrhage, and gut ischemia-reperfusion injury), a large number of those patients die of the ensuing circulatory shock and multiple organ failure. Shock and multiple organ failure continue to be the leading cause of death in medical and surgical intensive care units with unacceptably high mortality rates. Even though numerous modalities and substances have been studied to prevent circulatory collapse and to reduce mortality, none have been entirely successful.
Today modern medicine is starting to acknowledge that chronic inflammation is the main contributing factor to chronic degenerative diseases. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are the part of our immune system that can attack and kill cells with oxidative chemicals. If left untreated, inflammation can damage tissues and organs. For example, inflammation causes cartilage degradation in patients with arthritis and damage to the pancreas in patients with diabetes; and is now thought to play a role in the cardiovascular disease and cancers.
So far, only extremely limited specific therapies exist for treatment of both acute and chronic human inflammatory conditions. Accordingly, there is a great unmet medical need for an effective novel therapy for inflammatory conditions with minimal side effects.